Vigilance Never Sleeps
My friend James and I were strolling through the crowded Tokyo marketplace when the two young girls approached us from behind. They were dressed in matching school uniforms, and we were the only two Caucasian men within a stone's throw. The youngsters started talking. They asked where we were from, what we were doing in Tokyo, and how long we planned on staying. Turns out they were studying English and their teacher had encouraged them to get as much practice as possible. So they were practising on us. I have twin 13-year-old daughters. We live in Toronto. I'm pretty sure that no matter how badly they want to learn a second language, I'd discourage them from heading downtown to talk to strange middle-aged foreign guys. Of course I think one can never be too safe. I've just returned from Tokyo. And those young girls' assertiveness wasn't the only surprise. I was there as a guest of the bus and truck manufacturer Hino Motors Ltd., The company invited a group of journalists to see their extensive testing facilities, their test tracks, their hybrid trucks, and finally, their manufacturing plants. But more important than all those things, the folks at Hino wanted us to hear their plans for expansion. Hino execs say they've reached the market-saturation point back home. Hence, according to their annual report, “The Company aims to sharply boost North American sales from 2,000 trucks annually to 10,000 units in 2006 and 30,000 units in 2010.” Hino's currently third among class-5 truck dealers here in Canada; and fourth, behind International, Freightliner and GM, for class 6. The company's particularly strong in Quebec. And Indy racing fans are already hip to Hino's plans, because the truck company (which is owned by Toyota) has teamed with Roger Penske the race-team owner/ex-truck-leasing guy. And if Hino is anything like those young girls in the marketplace, rest assured they won't be easily deterred in meeting their goals. As for Japan, the first impressions were vivid. I didn't ride but I watched in awe as the silent-but-deadly-accurate bullet train accelerated from a dead stop to almost 500 clicks as it sped away from the city. Another detail that proved that the Japanese culture is light years away from ours? Corporate execs rode the public-transit system to and from the office. Even when the ride's more than an hour long. Imagine the CEO of, say, TD Canada Trust hopping the subway home. As well, I and my colleagues drew collective breaths the first time we were stuck in Tokyo traffic and a few motorbike couriers zipped between the lanes. But drivers simply don't seem to change lanes with abandon the way they do here. So the screaming mid-lane bikes are commonplace. As is building to make sure your structures are earthquake proof. Right in downtown Tokyo, there sits a monstrous ferris wheel, and apparently, if you're up on top, and an earthquake hits, you'll be okay. Their trucks, too, are being manufactured with an eye on eventuality. At one of Hino's largest customers-the 10,000-vehicle-strong courier company called Seino Transportation Co. Ltd., we were shown what has to be the safest little truck I've ever laid eyes on. Chief among this Hino's attributes was an airbag, situated right below the front bumper. So even if you get hit by the thing, you get an airbag. The truck also had little gates behind each front wheel that descended when it made left and right turns, so bicyclists or pedestrians couldn't slip under. And cleverly mounted video cameras allowed drivers to have virtually zero blind spots. Is there such a thing as safety overkill? Some days, I'd say yeah, but just last week, when I told guy I hadn't seen in a long time that I was now the proud editor of a trucking magazine, he responded with something sarcastic like, “Do you write about wheels flying off those things or do you pretend it doesn't happen?” It was typically misguided, but proved yet again that anything we can do to protect our image is worth pursuing. Bring on the under-the-bumper airbags. And no matter what, I'm not encouraging my daughters to go talk to strange guys downtown.